Uefa has opened an investigation into claims that a member of the Republic of Ireland coaching staff was spat at during Sunday’s Nations League meeting with Israel.
The European governing body confirmed that post-match reports submitted by match officials “contained an allegation of an incident in or around the tunnel at half-time”. Those reports will form the basis of a disciplinary investigation “regarding potential misconducts from player(s)”.
Witnesses at the match, which was played in the Serbian town of Backa Topola, reported hearing a member of the Irish staff – understood to be the fitness coach Damian Doyle – say he had been spat on by an Israeli player as the teams walked down the tunnel at the interval. A spokesperson for the Israeli Football Association denied the reports, stating that “no one had spat towards the coach”.
Speaking after the match, Ireland’s head coach Heimir Hallgrímsson said his team had been subjected to a number of apparent provocations in the buildup and moved to play down the incident. “There have been a lot of those ‘accidents’ and we were clever enough to avoid it before it went too far,” he said. “I felt it was their intention to intimidate us and make us do something stupid. I give big credit to how the players handled their emotions.”
The investigation is likely to extend the rancour that turned this double-header between Ireland and Israel into a geopolitical flashpoint. Ireland had come under intense pressure from supporters at home to boycott the fixtures, and held a vote over whether to fulfil the opening game in Hungary.
The second match, nominally an Ireland home fixture, was staged in Backa Topola after the Football Association of Ireland said “operational challenges” would prevent them from hosting it safely in Dublin. The buildup was marked by increasingly heated accusations from both sides, and two Israeli journalists were banned from attending Ireland’s post-match press conference after Uefa found they had brought “football into disrepute by using a press conference for politically motivated purposes” and displayed “improper behaviour” during and after a pre-match press conference.
Hallgrímsson has since asked Uefa to keep Ireland and Israel apart in future draws. A Uefa spokesperson responded: “Decisions to avoid certain teams being drawn against each other are made taking into consideration several factors, especially conditions between the two countries leading to structural risks for security. Uefa handles every situation very carefully on its own merits and monitors all facts and developments.”